Superior

Chapter 1

Sixty-Eight Years Later

Delaney

"And in other news, the Superiors will be arriving on May thirty-first..." The bored voice of the school secretary coming over the intercom was instantly drowned out by cheers, claps, and whistles. I was probably the only person who didn't pee herself when this message was announced every year.

"Oh my god, I, like, can't wait!" That was Carlie Heights, who, being Ranked at 10+, was the most Popular girl in school. And she knew it, too. She flipped her honey blonde hair and laughed. The group of girls around her laughed too; I doubt they really thought she was funny, Carlie just demanded attention.

When she caught me watching, her face twisted up into a disgusted expression. "Take a picture, Loser," she sneered. "It'll last longer." Again, the group of girls laughed with her. I didn't know their names, but I didn't need to. They were Popular; that was all that mattered.

"No thanks," I replied calmly. "I only take picture of pretty things." Her gray eyes flashed as I turned back around.

"Freak," Carlie muttered. Her little posse murmured their agreements. I rolled my eyes, regretting not my words, but the fact that I had been driven to stoop to their level.

Our teacher, Ms. Shea, looked up at me from her desk at the front of the room and smiled. I gave her a hesitant half-smile in return.

"Aren't you excited?" someone asks. I turned to look at the girl next to me: Samantha Markowitz. Her Rank was probably somewhere around six or seven.

"Me?" I asked in surprise. I had assumed my attitude had made it clear that I was very not excited.

"Huh?" She gave me a confused look. Of course, she wasn't talking to me.

"Sorry, nothing," I said quietly, feeling my face turn red. It didn't matter, she had already turned back to the boy sitting behind her. I didn't know his name, but I caught his eye for a second before he looked away.

Ms. Shea didn't give anymore instruction after the announcement, so the rest of Art was a free period. Everyone talked, the air filling with the buzz of many conversations. I managed to catch snippets of some.

"Oh my god, so what if..."

"—and then I'm going to have Sarah call my—"

"But what if—"

"So that when the Superiors come—"

"—I just want to be Chosen!"

And me? I sat in my seat and doodled on the cover of the notebook in front of me, pushing my glasses up my nose whenever they started slipping down. Occasionally I'd look up and peek over at whatever Ms. Shea was drawing on the paper on her desk. But other than that, I was silent. No one wanted to talk to me anyway.

○●○●○●○

"I don't understand why she hates me so much." I looked up at my best friend from under my lashes as I licked the icing off a chocolate cupcake.

Lizzy frowned, obviously searching for a response that would cause the least amount damage to my self-esteem. "It's okay, Delaney," she reassured me, "she's just...jealous."

It was nice of her, trying to spare my feelings like that. But the answer was obvious, even though neither of us wanted to admit it: I was a Loser. It was as simple as that.